This invention relates to a vacuum conduit pick-up device with improved control, and constitutes an improvement on the invention disclosed in my co-pending patent application, Ser. No. 380,900 Filed July 19, 1973, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,913,307.
In that patent application, there is disclosed a device for picking up leaves, debris or other material for transfer to a container or the like. An elongated flexible conduit has an outer end mouth for engaging the materials and the conduit is vacuumized. A plurality of bellows are disposed along and generally parallel to the outer end portion of the conduit, and means are provided to expand the bellows at selective amounts to thereby support the conduit wall and hold it relatively rigid at a desired angle.
Under certain circumstances, it has been found desirable to extend or retract the conduit, while maintaining it at a desired angular disposition, such as for example in penetrating into the depths of a tree for branch cleaning; or for street cleaning.
The present invention accomplishes this purpose and is directed to an improvement whereby the air flowing through the bellows at selective amounts, which are usually different, is selectively increased or decreased an equal amount for each bellows to lengthen or shorten the conduit without changing its angular disposition. This is accomplished in the present embodiment by momentarily actuating a control cylinder which, through a valve control plate, equally varies the amount of air fed to each bellows.